By Warren Waters
Housing & Homelessness
On March 17, Ottawa-Vanier MPP Lucille Collard and the three city councillors from Wards in her constituency (King, Fleury, and Tierney … well, really just King, the other two sent staff) held a public zoom meeting to discuss their plan for an upcoming private member’s bill on housing and homelessness.
Said to be the culmination of a year of research and discussions between our city councillors and our MPP, the event appeared mostly aimed at discovering what the public wanted, rather than proposing anything. At the meeting, Collard spoke little, and gave no clear idea of what her private member’s bill might someday possibly contain. She did say it would require the Provincial government to have a plan to address housing and homelessness, that the plan could not include shelters, and must require that cities report on their real progress to qualify for funding. But none of these are new.
Aside from these and some vague jargon, the evening was disappointing for anyone interested in change from the status quo. Let your representatives all know your views well before the elections.
Nightlife Economy Strategy
Following the success of the city-led Music Strategy, the city hired MDB Insight Consulting from Toronto to develop an Economic Development Strategy to address the economic opportunities and challenges of Ottawa’s nightlife. This Strategy will outline the City’s short-term (3 to 5 years) and long-term (5 to 10 years) actions to stimulate economic growth in Ottawa’s nightlife economy.
The city defines nightlife economy as the wide range of experiences achieved through leisure, live entertainment, and cultural activities, between 6 pm and 6 am. It includes the food, music, arts, and entertainment, as well as the sports and leisure sectors.
This initiative is inspired by cities such as Berlin, Amsterdam, New-York, Washington and Toronto who are gaining a competitive edge by developing their nightlife economies. The rationale is that cities with vibrant nightlife economies enjoy improved job creation, talent attraction, investment attraction, economic growth, tourism, and city brand building.
This will be a city-wide strategy hopefully tailored to meet the unique needs and challenges of the various Ottawa neighbourhoods. Please let the consultant know your views about Ottawa’s Nightlife economy: Email: choskin@mdbinsight.com and Cc: emmanuel.rey@ottawa.ca
Transportation Master Plan
The latest draft does not commit to removing trucks from downtown, but in fact wants to better accommodate them and simply wait for NCC to implement another crossing before removing the truck route. The draft says: “The City will continue to work with other governments and the private sector to explore ways to better accommodate truck traffic in the downtown and reduce impacts from goods movement.
….The City will review the removal of Rideau Street and King Edward Avenue from the City’s identified truck route network once a suitable, safe, and efficient alternative is implemented. “
The draft policy document can be found at: engage.ottawa.ca/transportation-master-plan. Please submit your views at the project website: engage.ottawa.ca/transportation-master-plan
Warren Waters is Chair of the LCA Planning Committee